I really like the design of the gun, I honestly wouldn't suggest any changes because the more changes you make,the more it starts to look like all the other guns out there. That being said, I'm not going to pick this one up, as I don't have nearly enough money for this one haha. However, if you want to make my Christmas and donate a gun to an aspiring high school player, I would be obliged to accept .

If you're under 18 and pay for your own stuff, put this in your signature.
On a side note... Royal Highlanders rule!

I agree (my violent trigger is as such)...but the J4's trigger really seemed crude and temporary if you were there to see/shoot it. He was swamped with other ppl asking questions by the time I shot it so I didn't get to ask how it should come out...ie hopefully not like the DM14 trigger.

The triggers were quick printed trigger (low resolution, extruder 3D printer) though they had dual ball bearings. The final triggers aluminum (already made) will also have the dual ball bearing. The aluminum blanks were were at the event also, sorry - swamped was an understatement, but next time call me out! I can normally take a few, I brought lots of minions this last time.

Okay, Topic I must bring up,
Somewhere down the intrenets grape vine someone said that the company you chose to machine the marker bodies has had some tolerance issues so far. (little, niggly things, not Gigantic gaping holes by any means)

First off, is the grapevine any truthful (its cool to say it is )
Second: whats the action plan

Third: I still Want one

touching the marker last year at legends made me feel like I somehow saw the birth of something awesome, Can't wait to see it again...and throw money at you
(Yall want the New Canadian 100$'s? They smell like maple syrup, I'll bring you some down

Okay, Topic I must bring up,Somewhere down the intrenets grape vine someone said that the company you chose to machine the marker bodies has had some tolerance issues so far. (little, niggly things, not Gigantic gaping holes by any means)

First off, is the grapevine any truthful (its cool to say it is )Second: whats the action plan

Very good question, and definitely one of the rumors rolling around. So lets get this straight:

The company that is milling the markers is made up of two guys who were involved in the Vanguard project, yes. They were brought in at the end to dial in that project. They were not the ones who did the CAD work, or the initial bodies, nor did they have much say in the process. In the end they both said the project was being rushed to market before it was dialed in. Which it was for the most part. The Demon is a great gun, but just a few degrees from being perfect. One of the best platforms right now - it just needs finalizing.

While Tolerance could be seen as the issue, the problem really was the design work, and the timeline of the project, and constraints put on them from the management of the process. I know, I have held the previous parts in my hand from both of those guns, plus looked at the CAD files, and talked to everyone evolved. A crucial part was the initial CAD was not dialed in perfectly. In addition, they were limited in the machines they could run the parts on, and were not able to affect much change. They know what they would have done differently. And so they have, in setting up ValveFlow, a different and separate company they formed after Vanguard.

They brought in new, smaller more agile machines better suited for paintball gun parts and their tolerance, not as in one case, building custom rims for high performance race cars. They are also setup for production, with barfeeds, with Active Head lathes and related. So, this is being ran on all new to the process machines. Finishing will be mechanical, not hand polished, small parts will go through one process on one machine in some cases, with 500 being dropped off the machine in 1 night, done, ready for a tumbler, then anodizing.

Also in this case I worked direct with them to simplify parts and the design for production, talking to the guys about the best process, and the simplest manner to setup the parts. With one having worked with Jack Wood years ago making parts, and even putting his own gun out almost 15 years ago plus having patents for balanced poppets and regulators and some other paintball parts under his wing, and the other having experience making parts for Rolls Royce Turbines and several industries, (including the race car wheels) plus excellent CAD skills, it seems stupid for the designer to dictate the best way to do this project. With all of us sitting in a room working on the project it really is a dynamic batch of experience. They said the last 2 week stint I did there was equal to months of work on the Vanguard project.

Being flexible on my side, working with the machinists, working to come out with a better process for production, planning better machines to run the parts and picking them up just to do this makes this a far different project then the Vanguard one, and even most guns on the market. The only common bits are a couple of the minds, and 1 machine. The process is so different, and so focused on the design and production of paintball guns that it really is a beast of an altogether new sort.

In the end the project has taken far longer then we expected because we didn't try and rush this to market. We are making sure the project is ready to go when we go to market. I have my design end, my perfectionist, engineering type side that wants to constantly improve. On the other side are two guys who know a good chunk reining me in.

This dynamic is good. The end result has been the work of 3 experience minds focused on doing it right, not quick, not limited by management, not told to put it to market before it might be ready. I get to say when, not marketing. Also as the head of this, the designer running the business instead of a sales guy, or the investor or management of a large company, or just a player, the result is far different then normal. Looking at this, it really should have been far longer. I know of several projects that took 2-3 years to go to market, that with large companies and literally millions of dollar spent. That we did this in the timeline we did and a far smaller budget has been a bit of a feat.

Hope that answers your question! Feel free to ask if you want anything more detailed.

Did you see the reg we just did, off of one of the same machines? Making smart CAD means we cut the time down to 21 minutes total run time for the reg, with a better surface then 45 minutes just for surfacing.

There has to be good CAD to make for easy clean machining.

The raw bodies, done 4 months ago, without a proper production fixture look like this:

With the new radiusing and some changes to the program it comes off just needing a light tumble to get it finished.

I would hazard to say good CAD, designed to work with the machining process, produces a far better result then bad CAD.

Always invest more in design time to make the overall development process go better. In engineering school they taught that 60%+ of your total labor budget should go towards design. It looks like your efforts paid off - that reg looks great! (It looks like maybe it will have bottom adjustment?)

Did you see the reg we just did, off of one of the same machines? Making smart CAD means we cut the time down to 21 minutes total run time for the reg, with a better surface then 45 minutes just for surfacing.

That Asa is completely different to the 1st design its all 2d milling of course it will be quicker,

what software are your machinist using? as that make a big to quality machining, some softwares don't have all the features to most out of the machine.

We use Delcam and its fantastic, has the best tool strategies i've seen on milling software.

They are using mastercam, but did just get an upgraded version. I also did things like make the radiusing larger then 6mm over most of it, (10 and 12mm at some point) so we can use a large tool to clean it up easy. I did have him try some different tool strategies also, so the end result will need far less clean up.

Same machines, same machinists but forethought on the CAD and working with them produces much different results.

Since we left this off on machining, here is the final operation series of the gun. Everything else is done, just doing the surface body milling. And here is the first 10 minutes with the large ball end:

Since you guys seem to like the machine pics, today we will be posting up the last as we kick into the last operations. Here is the start. This was the last op we needed on the grip, the rear panel. Unfortunately the mills went down right when we were at this point. Here you go: